Tuesday Editions (Stay Alive / Freddy's Revenge)

Letterboxd Rushes

 Stay Alive 

I noticed "Choose or Die" was getting a lot of traction with those I follow on Letterboxd and Netflix was propping it up. My daughter asked me this afternoon if we might be watching a movie tonight, and I thought we might revisit "Stay Alive" in preparation for "Choose or Die". I have only watched this once, sometime on Starz about 2007. I realized why after watching it again tonight.

A video game Elizabeth Bathory released from a new game through a text read by gamers before they start it. This film follows Foster, whose father burned his house down with his mother in it (and caused a traumatic hate of fire), and his friends as they try to stay alive while their deaths in the game mirror what happens to them in real lif

Okay, the plot, I mean, what can I say? It speaks for itself. So Foster, and Samaire, who is a photographer living out of her van, try to locate Bathory's body in a tower in the back of a cemetery, while Munez uses the game to keep Bathory invested in his demis

So Sophia Bush in this helped. I wish she was actually the main star of the film, quite frankly. I was bored by almost every one else, but Munez, I thought, was fun as the fast-talking gaming wiz. But Bush is sort of relegated to "sexy goth" who is into literature about the likes of Bathory, while Simpson stands out in the middle of the road seemingly begging to be trampled...Simpson is all over television, including Westworld, but in this film he has off-the-cuff remarks that could be deemed obnoxious, bosses everyone around, and has a habit of cutting people off mid-sentence. Honestly, Simpson is the kind of guy that would annoy the fuck out of me.

This is PG-13 horror in its purest form. There are moments that could have kicked ass if shown on screen, but video game Bathory did absolutely nothing for me. And video game zombies walking around in the real world was just laughable. But I do admit I'm not a gamer, so that might be why I'm not really as much the audience for this as others might be. And I could see this being a nostalgia favorite if you were young at the time and loved horror video games.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

I really like that scene in Jesse's room where he's done his little dance while in the middle of cleaning up and Lisa walks in willing to help. As they are about done organizing all the items that had been scattered around and about, Lisa finds Nancy's diary in the closet. I think why I like that is because this ties Jesse's current story to the first film, allowing us to "read" from Nancy's own teenage life before and during Freddy's terrorizing her. It is connective tissue between the first film -- where Lisa tells Jesse that Nancy's "era" in high school was four years prior, "before her time" -- and this one. Even though we never see the diary in the first film, I have no problem, personally, accepting this as canon. Jesse has night terrors as Nancy and Tina did, and Fred's description enables Jesse to realize this is happening to him. Plus, it pulls Lisa into the story, eventually she also has to contend with Freddy. And I just like how it comments on Nancy's own desires for Glen, how she wanted him and that never happens because of Fred Krueger.

The franchise goes away from the house specifically, and this sequel seems sort of excised, but I do like how the first film isn't just forgotten, even as the "rules" are pretty much of little consequence. I don't really have much of a problem with that. No other film really says this sequel didn't happen that I can recall.

Oh, and I hated riding the schoolbus so Freddy using that as a vehicle of his evil presence makes sense to me. I used to have nightmares of having the ride the fucking thing every day to school. Fred could have used that against me, too.

A lot of us had that living room couch in the 80s, haha.

Edit: I bumped this up a half star because it has my all-time favorite shot of Fred. There is this fire flaming up and there is just this look on Englund's face, his eyes, that is just unsettling. And it has two other moments that are in my top 10: "You are all my children now" and the schoolbus ride to hell.